Christian Kane
Christian Kane was born Chris Short on June 27, 1974 in Dallas, Texas.
He grew up in Norman, Oklahoma. He attended the University of Oklahoma where he had plans to major in Art History, but got interested in acting. A few months later he climbed in his pickup truck and headed for Hollywood.
His only Western credit, so far, is Crossfire Trail (TV, 2001) with Tom Selleck. But that ain't too shabby.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Christian Kane.
Robert Kammon
Robert Kammon is the author of The Watcher (Fawcett, 1965) and Big Horn Gunfighter (Zebra, 1987).
Brian Keith
(Deceased)
Brian Keith, actor, was born on November 14, 1921 in Bayonne, NJ. His parents were both entertainers. His father, Robert Keith, was a character actor and his mother, Helen Shipman, was an actress. So he grew up backstage as his parents performed in various touring stage productions. In 1924, at the age of three, Brian Keith appeared in the movie, "Pied Piper Malone. And he began acting on stage and in various radio dramas well before 1940. When World War II started, in 1941, Brian Keith joined the U.S. Marines and became a machine gunner.After his discharge from the Marines, he returned to acting on the stage on Broadway. Then he moved into the TV and film media.He played "Uncle Bill" on television's "Family Affair".
Brian Keith was a heavy cigarette smoker. And as early as 1955 he was doing ads for Camels, one of the brands with an extremely high nicotine content.
The Western films of Brian Keith include Young Guns (1988), Death Before Dishonor (1987), The Mountain Men (1980), How the West Was Won (1978, TV mini-series), The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer (1977), The Bull of the West (1971, TV), Nevada Smith (1966), The Rare Breed (1966), The Hallelujah Trail (1965), Fort Dobbs (1958), Sierra Baron (1958), Run of the Arrow (1957), Hell Canyon Outlaws (1957) and Arrowhead (1953).
He also starred as Dave Blasingame in the off-beat TV Wester series, "The Westerner."
Brian Keith suffered from emphysema during his last years. He committed suicide on June 24, 1997 at Malibu, CA. one day after a stay in the hospital. He is buried in the Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery (Garden of Serenity new Memorial Garden) in Los Angeles, CA.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Brian Keith.
Harold Keith
Harold Keith was born in Lambert, Oklahoma Territory, on April 8, 1903. He attended school at Watonga, Okla., Victoria, Texas, and Joplin, Mo. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in history from the University of Oklahoma.
At OU Harold Keith ran the mile anchor leg on the successful Sooner medley relay team. He was the Missouri Valley Conference champion in both the indoor mile and the two mile. He won the Oklahoma AAU cross-country race in 1945, long after he graduated. In 1973 he broke the U.S. Masters national records for men "70 and over" in the two-mile and three-mile runs. In 1974 he bettered the 10,000 meter record for the same age group.
In 1930 OU's athletic director, Bennie Owen, hired Harold Keith as the university's "Sports Publicity Director". He was founder and served as president of the College Sports Information Directors of America. The organization bestowed its prestigious Arch Ward Award on him in 1961.In 1969 he was inducted into the sports information directors sector of the Helms Foundation Hall of Fame in 1969. In 1987 he was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.
Harold Keith was also a productive author. He wrote two books on OU football: Oklahoma Kickoff (covering the early years of 1895 to 1920) and Forty-Seven Straight! (covering OU's vistory streak during the Bud Wilkinson years of 1953 to 1957.
However, most of his 16 books were young adult fiction. His first book, Boys Life of Will Rogers, was published in 1936. His next book, Sports and Games, was the Junior Literary Guild selction in 1940.
Harold Keith wrote four books which won national honors. Rifles for Watie was won the 1957 Newbery Award. Komatica won the 1965 New York Times Best Book Award. Susy's Scoundrel won the 1974 Western heritage Association's Wrangler Award, as well as the 1974 Western Writers of America Spur Award. The Obstinate Land won the 1978 Western heritage Association's Wrangler Award.
Harold Keith was inducted into the Oklahoma Writers hall of Fame. And He won the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Center for the Book, in the Oklahoma Department of Libraries.
Harold Keith died of congestive heart failure at Norman (Okla.) Regional Hospital on Feb. 24, 1998, at the age of 94.
David Kelley
David Kelley, cowboy poet, lives near Allen, Texas. He is a regular performer at cowboy festivals and events throughout the Southwest. He was born west of Lubbock, Texas so long ago that there were mountains all around. That was in 1943. He grew up on the family farm, then he moved to New Mexico.
David says, " I have had limited cowboy experiences, and one side of the family was almost all cowboys. I spent a good deal of time on The Pitchfork Ranch, (as we called it back then, actually The Pitchfork Land & Cattle Company) near Guthrie, Texas. I had a dear uncle who was the "Farm Camp Manager" for the "Pitchfork" for years. He and his brothers, Porter, Jack,and his dad, King David Myers, cowboy'd all around the Caprock area of Texas all their lives. They're all dead now and I felt an obligation to put some of their stories, as well as some of my own, down for my kids, and others who might be interested."
CLICK HERE to go to David Kelley's own web site.
Grace Kelley
(Deceased)
Princess Grace Kelley, actress and later married to the ruler of Monaco, was born on November 12, 1929.
She died on September 14, 1982 of injuries resulting from a car crash on the island of Monaco. Her remains are in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Her best-known Western role was with
Gary Cooper in "High Noon" (1952)
Jack Kelley
James Garner as "Bret Maverick" and Jack Kelley as "Bart Maverick" in the TV series, "Maverick".
Leo P. Kelley
Leo Patrick Kelley was born in 1928. He served as an advertising copywriter and manager with McGraw Hill Book Company from 1959-69. And in 1969 he bit the bullet and became a full-time freelance writer. He has written novels and short stories in the fields of science fiction, Westerns, fantasy and children's fiction.Leo P. Kelley's books include The Counterfeits (1967), Odyssey to Earthdeath (1968), The Accidental Earth (1968), Time Rogue (1970), The Coins of Murph (1971), Brother John (1971), Mindmix (1972), Time: 110100 (1972), Deadlocked (1973), Mythmaster (1973), The Earth Tripper (1973), The Time Trap (1977), Backward in Time (1979), Death Sentence (1979), Earth Two (1979), Prison Satellite (1979), Sunworld (1979), Worlds Apart (1979), Dead Moon (1979), Luke Sutton: Bounty Hunter (Doubleday, 1985); Luke Sutton: Outrider (Signet).
Leo P. Kelley is also the author of the "Cimarron" series for Signet, including Cimarron and the Scalp Hunters (1985), Cimarron and the Prophets People (1985), Cimarron & the Bootleggers (1985), Cimarron & the Border Bandits (1983), Cimarron & the Bounty Hunters (1983), Cimarron and the Elk Soldiers (1983), Cimarron and the Gun Hawk's Gold (1985), Cimarron and the Hanging Judge (1983), Cimarron & the High Rider (1984), Cimarron & the Hired Guns (1986), Cimarron & the Medicine Wolves (1984), Cimarron & the Vigilantes (1984), Cimarron & the War Women (1984), Cimarron in the Cherokee Strip (1983), Cimarron in the No Man's Land (1984), Cimarron on Hell's Highway (1984), Cimarron Rides the Outlaw Trail (1983).
In addition, Leo P. Kelley is the editor of Themes in Science Fiction: A Journey into Wonder (1972), The Supernatural in Fiction (1972) and Fantasy: The Literature of the marvelous (1973).
Elmer Kelton
Elmer Kelton was born on April 29, 1926 on the Sharbauer Ranch east of Andrews, Texas. He attended Crane (Tx) High School where he studied under a teacher named Paul Patterson (Patterson, a former cowboy, would become a legendary Texas storyteller and cowboy poet). Kelton graduated at the age of 16, and at the age of 18 joined the infantry in World War II.Later, Elmer Kelton studied journalism at the University of Texas. And he began to write. As a senior at UT, at the age of 21, he made his first sale--a short story to Ranch Romances in 1947 for $50. He sold his first novel, Hot Irons, in 1955.
Elmer Kelton graduated from UT in 1948. He went to work as a livestock reporter for Livestock Weekly in San Angelo. He became editor in 1968 and remained in that position until he retired in 1996. During that period his creative fiction writing time was found in the evenings and on the weekends, so he tended to turn out books at a slower pace than full-time novelists.
However, Kelton has established himself as one of the best in the field. He has sold every book he has ever written, and that's now a total of some 40, at last count. His books have won two Wrangler Awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. His fellow WWA-ers bestowed four Spur Awards on his books. And at the Oklahoma City convention in 1977 the WWA gave him its highest honor, the Saddleman Award.
Elmer & Anna Kelton in AustriaKelton is the author of Buffalo Wagons (1956), Barbed Wire (1957), Shadow of a Star (1959), The Texas Rifles (1960), Donovan (1961), Bitter Trail (1962), Horsehead Crossing (1963), Massacre at Goliad (1965), Llano River (1966), After the Bugles (1967), Captain's Rangers (1968), Hanging Judge (1969), Bowies Mine (1971),, The Wolf and the Buffalo (Doubleday, 1980; Texas Christian University Press reprint), The Day the Cowboys Quit (1971; Reprinted in 1986 by Texas Christian University Press), Wagontongue (1972), The Time It Never Rained (1973), Manhunters (1974), The Good Old Boys (1978), Stand Proud (1984), Dark Thicket (Doubleday, 1985, There's Always Another Chance (Fort Concho Museum Press, 1986), The Man Who Rode Midnight (1987), Honor at Daybreak( 1991), Slaughter (1992), Far Canyon (1994), Pumpkin Rollers (1996) and Cloudy in the West (1997).
He wrote the following books under the name of Lee McElroy: Joe Pepper (1975, Doubleday), Long Way to Texas (1976), Eyes of the Hawk (1981); and as Alex Hawk, Shotgun Settlement (1969).
He also writes under the "house name" of Tom Early. His books under that name include Sons of Texas (1989), Songs of Texas: The Raiders (1989) and Sons of Texas: The Rebels (1990).
Kelton told a reporter for the Houston (Tx) Post (May 1, 1983), "My characters are people like me; common people, usually, not overly brave and certainly not foolhardy. Louis L'Amour's characters are 8 feet tall and invincible. Mine are 5 feet 8 and nervous."
His articles have appeared in Texas Monthly and The Writer. His career was the subject of two articles in Roundup by Stan Paregien: "Riding the Range with Elmer Kelton"(Feb., 1987, 11-12) and "Elmer Kelton, The Early Years"(March, 1987).
In 1987 Kelton received the Barbara McCombs/Lon Tinkle Award of $1,000 for "continuing excellence in letters" from the Texas Institute of Letters. He was a moderator and one of the featured panelists at the 1989 Cowboy Symposium sponsored by the Ranching Heritage Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
In 1996 actor Tommy Lee Jones directed and starred in the made-for-TV film verson of Kelton's book, "The Good Old Boys".
(I am indepted to Arthur Hendrix, a Kelton fan, for some updates and corrections to the above listing.--SP)
Horace B. Kelton
A former president of Curtis Mathes Corporation, Horace B. Kelton is now president of Kelton-Mathes Development Corporation. He has two published novels, including The Meanest Man in West Texas (Doubleday, 1985), using the name H.B. Broome.
This listing is far from complete and may contain errors.
Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or their agents
are requested to submit recommended changes by
contacting Stan Paregien through his e-mail address.
Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
--- Bible: Psalm 37:3
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
